


To Be One With Peace

by anticsandshenanigans



Series: The Blood of the Covenant [3]
Category: Sense8 (TV)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-12
Updated: 2015-09-12
Packaged: 2018-04-20 11:20:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4785473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anticsandshenanigans/pseuds/anticsandshenanigans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riley visits Sun in prison.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Be One With Peace

Sun eases her body through the movements of a block, closing the movement with enough force to jar the strike of an attacker. With every breath, she feels herself sinking deeper into her understanding of the movement each rhythm. She feels the energy of the world flowing through her body. It is as close to spiritualism she could ever get, and she sighs happily as she finishes her kata. No matter what else is going on in her life, within her exercises, she is free.

“How do you do that?” asks Riley. Sun looks down to see her sitting, knees pulled up, against the wall in her cell. The tired, sad expression that seems ingrained in her skin pulls at Sun’s heartstrings, but she brushes it aside.

“Practice.” She says softly. “I practice every day so that I remember the movements.”

“It would be bad to forget them.” Riley agrees. She leans in and hugs her knees. “I wish I could do that. Then I could protect Will.”

“But you do protect Will.” Sun said, a bit incredulously. “You take care of him.”

“But when you all were rescuing me, I was so useless.” Riley says. She rests her cheek on her knees, and Sun watches as the corners of Riley’s lips turn down and she draws inward. This girl would never be able to fight this way.

Sun sits down across from her and makes a fist. “It is like I said before. You have to take all of your pain, and push it into your fist, and fight for it.”

Riley looks at her hands, so delicate and pale, and makes a weak fist. She laughs at the sight of it, and smooths her skirt. “I am not a fighter.”

“Then you will not fight.” Sun says irritably, standing up again. “If you will excuse me, I must return to my exercises.”

“May I watch?” Riley asks. 

Sun pauses for a moment, before nodding. It is right for her to watch. There is much that can be learned just from watching. Sun moves slowly through the next kata, making sure her movements are broad and clear. She ends each movement with a brief, hard exhalation to emphasize the force in it. Slowly she speeds it up. She increases the force, the breath turning into a shout, her kicks connecting with wall, her fists getting bloody. Rage boils in her gut: 

Rage at being forced into prison to protect her brother, rage at the murder of her father, rage at the lawyers who even now decided her fate, rage and fear and pain all pounding out against the wall. Bloody agony tears at her skin and with a final cry, she closes the kata, and turns to Riley. She places her fist in her palm and bows. 

Riley sits in stunned silence, watching the display of pain with empathy. She knows what Sun is feeling, she knows what Sun knows, and Sun sees the loss of Magnus and Luna, and feels Riley’s pain just as acutely. It is a raging storm in Sun’s chest, an ache that hasn’t faded in years, it’s the worst of the pain that Sun felt when she lost her mother. She falls to her knees and kneels in front of Riley. 

Riley reaches over to wipe something off of Sun’s cheek. Sun leans into the touch, so gentle, so like her mother’s. It astounds her to realize that what she needed, perhaps, was not hardness, but tenderness, was not anger, but tears. 

Riley and Sun sit and cry together, and then Sun stands. She reaches out a hand to Riley. Riley hesitates, before accepting the offer. Sun pulls her to her feet, noting how little Riley weighs, how slight her thin frame is. It will take a lot of work to teach her to be stronger than a larger opponent. 

Sun places Riley’s feet, plants them at 45% angles just beneath her shoulders and taps the backs of her knees to make them bend. She shows Riley the first block, and Riley smiles softly.   
Riley moves slowly and clumsily through the movements, but by the end of the lesson, there is more confidence in her stance, and the smile on her face settles. 

Perhaps together, they can move towards something resembling peace. 

They look around, at Kala, smiling widely. Capheus beaming, tears streaming down his cheeks. Wolfgang, a slight grin tucked into the corner of his mouth. Lito, his grin larger than anyone else’s, and he turns to someone next to him to whisper in their ear. Nomi, holding tight to someone’s hand and smiling gently, proudly. And Will, who smiled in his sleep, his hand relaxing from a fist. 

Perhaps, all together, they can learn how to be.


End file.
